Family Guy’s Seth MacFarlane Wants To Run The New Star Trek Series

There’s been a lot of talk recently about the desire to bring Star Trek back to television, with a new series. Though there are a couple of different plans in motion nothing is really concrete yet. One thing seems certain though: If CBS is going to bring Star Trek back, they need to do something different.

How about Seth MacFarlane?

When I say different I don’t mean juggling time periods or anything like that. I’m talking about a whole new attitude for the show. Something to make it really relevant again. The thing that made the original Star Trek great was the way in which it deftly tackled hot button political issues of the time with great science fiction stories. In Voyager and Enterprise, the franchise really got away from that. And in the movies, Star Trek has just become pure entertainment. That’s fine for the feature films, but if you’re going to do a television series… it’s time Trek mattered again.

Seth MacFarlane is exactly the kind of guy who could do that, and what’s more, he wants to do it.

In a recent interview with THR MacFarlane revealed that he’s kind of ready to be done with Family Guy, and once he’s done, he really wants to be in the Star Trek business. He says, “I don’t know who would give me the keys to that car… But I’d love to see that franchise revived for television in the way that it was in the 1990s: very thoughtful, smartly written stories that transcend the science fiction audience.”
What he’s describing is exactly the way Trek needs to be approached. Better still MacFarlane really is kind of a sci-fi geek. He’s done an entire Family Guy: Star Wars epic, Star Trek references frequently show up on Family Guy, and Patrick Stewart is a regular voice contributor on Seth’s animated shows. He’s even been on Star Trek. MacFarlane appeared in two episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise as a character named Rivers…

Seth MacFarlane’s the kind of guy you can trust to know his way around the Star Trek universe, while still having the balls to do something fresh and innovative with it. And that’s the kind of Star Trek series I’d like to see.

Comments

I’d like to see Babylon 5 creator have a shot at creating a show, but he tends to do story arcs (which I like)… But they can be a bit slow to get going. I don’t know what Seth would bring to the table. But whoever does finally revive the show I hope they make sure they hire people who have a background with Star Trek. The trouble with Enterprise is that they didn’t keep it relevant to much of the other series and it was only until they hired some people who knew the Trek universe that it actually felt like something befitting Star Trek.

I think it would be great except wouldn’t it be really hard to set anti Palin and Bush jokes in the 24th century and have any realistic expectation of the characters thinking they are funny? But if that is what it takes to get a new Star trek series, I’m in! 😛

No… just… no… McFarlane has become so politically charged that he has made Family Guy unwatchable. If he wants to be in an episode, fine. Whatever. A lot Star Trek fans that are successful have had cameos in Trek over the years, and I’m cool with him doing just that. But even considering giving him the reigns to the franchise… just please don’t.